The Commission Election of India (CEI) has decided not to select Google as a partner to create an online voter registration tool that would also provide information about voting locations and card numbers.

“Google made a presentation to the Commission for electoral look up services for citizens... However, after due consideration, the Commission has decided not to pursue the proposal any further,” wrote Dhirendra Ojha, the director of the commission, in a statement on Thursday.

Citing unnamed CEI officials, Reuters reported that Google was dropped because the company had not offered any major improvements. Also, the company's services were declined given strained relations between India and the US over a new diplomatic spat and previous concerns of surveillance and spying in the wake of the Snowden disclosures.

"Google is committed to help make public information on the Web easily accessible to Internet users across the country," Google said in a statement provided to the news agency.

"It is unfortunate that our discussion with the Election Commission of India to change the way users access their electoral information, that is publicly available, through an online voter look up tool, were not fruitful," it added.

Some American tech firms have seen lost business as a result of the post-Snowden fallout, including Cisco and other companies that provide cloud-based services. Foreign companies, by contrast, have used the opportunity to market themselves as resistant to NSA pressure due to their presence overseas.

This is more likely done as a snub then anything else. India is probably going to choose a local firm to reinforce the idea that it can be done properly inhouse, but more likely to possibly commit election fraud.

Yeah because not giving an American company that's bound to be under an NSL access to the entire Indian electoral roll is just a silly overreaction. /s

For some reason, UK and Canadian small companies are pulling out of the US cloud industry too. There was a survey done about that; a small one, yes, but still another indication of the slowly boiling American tech frog.

Would have been nice to have India contract work to an American company. Quite frankly, I think being able to better cover up voter fraud makes more sense. Right now, I figure any online voting project anywhere is going to have at least one significantly involved person trying to figure out how to rig the system and it's a lot easier to influence things if it's being done domestically.

Edit: To clarify, the NSA concerns are certainly valid too, I just think those are more of an easy out to cover the primary reasoning.

Plenty of people still claim that, rmm200, but they're the same people who have been using "terrorism" for the past decade or so to justify any and every harmful decision they want to make anyway. Facts didn't stop them before, they certainly won't get in their way now.

May I remind the Ars reader that India insisted that BlackBerry hand over the keys to their encryption. Rather than not lose the sales, BlackBerry had to set up special routers just for India in order to let the Indian government spy on its citizens.

This has little to do with NSA or the diplomatic standoff. Its election season in India and everybody is posturing. Most Indians don't know enough to care about the NSA spying, it's primarily a first world problem. Those who care do so due to their inherent distrust of USA and the " West". Election Commission voter rolls are published and public record. The management of the rolls are a manual process and allow parties to manipulate and rig the polls. Automation gets in the way of that process. The parties fought against electronic voting machines for a long time but the election commission prevailed due to strong leaders in the 90s. The voting rolls are the biggest ally of the fraudsters who cannot get away with violence in the urban areas.

A few of my Indian colleagues said it was more likely that this was done to make it easier to cover up election fraud. Maybe they're more paranoid.

I must admit, that was my first thought. India has a long history of severe corruption, which is still endemic today.

The Election Commission (not Commission Election, by the way) is an autonomous body that is not aligned with, or reports to, any political party (ruling or opposition) in India. They are probably one of the few fair institutions in India and if they decide to go against using Google's services it could be because of many things, but covering up election fraud or being corrupt are probably not amongst them.

Also, so what if Indian government is corrupt and has secondary motives for saying no to Google. Indian citizens can bring lawsuits through the courts against their own governments, but can't do so against a foreign intelligence service. I mean, if it didn't matter, maybe those laughable voting machines in Florida could be delivered there by a company that's run by the FSB. Since some of you make that claim, I'm sure you wouldn't mind that.

Ironically, this may have actually been useful to India: Google had said that they'd only make the already-public information more accessible. Too bad, I'd like to see how they will try to get people to trust them again.

Regardless of the validity of the reasons behind India"s decision, the NSA has single handedly destroyed America's reputation in cyber security and tech quality.

In some respects, they are cyber terrorists themselves.

Yet leaps and bounds behind China.It's usually easy for companies abroad to tout their own companies using the NSA; its really a great PR move and easy to swallow. But given how the politics of India has been ugly lately, whether its the diplomatic issue described in the article to even the Olympic flag, I'd say there are bigger financial interests that probably don't mind touting fear to their benefit.

Election Commission of India is an Autonomous body which does not report to any Government Ministry. It is a respected and independent body who has been highly successful in making election in India very clean. As such, if it has taken some decision, be assured it is not to indulge in any kind of election fraud. Also, Election in India takes place with encrypted Electronic Voting Machines with paper trail, so that voting can't be rigged. As such, only two possibilities for the decision could be, as reported above, No clear benefits of Google 's project or mistrust towards the company /country.

Would have been nice to have India contract work to an American company. Quite frankly, I think being able to better cover up voter fraud makes more sense.

Yeah pot calling kettle black. Remember the US presidential election of 2000? Palm Beach County's butterfly ballots? What about the 2004 United States election voting controversies?

Typical USian behavior: Start blaming/berating/criticizing others but doing the same shit most often even worse. Other examples of this behavior: human/civil rights abuses: the US loves to point the finger to show themselves as paragon of freedom but has Guantanamo, torture, extrajudicial killings, massive surveillance, death penalty, NDAA, police violence, NSLs etc.Corruption: Apart from the election "irregularities"? Citizens United ...

The main reason was that Google is already under investigation for running their cars all over the city of Bangalore without permission, for street view. They are under probe for violating certain laws.

May I remind the Ars reader that India insisted that BlackBerry hand over the keys to their encryption. Rather than not lose the sales, BlackBerry had to set up special routers just for India in order to let the Indian government spy on its citizens.

Along with just about every other country in the world that asked BB for the same thing, including the NSA in America, the Brits, the Chinese, Saudi Arabia and many, many other countries.

Decision not partner with Google wasn't only because of supposedly NSA snooping. You people seem to forget that India has a population of 1.2 billion. During last elections India had over 700 million registered voters. Any company will be more than happy to handle data of so many prospective users where they can get details like name, age and even address. Who will be bothered of privacy loopholes in gmail after that.

A few of my Indian colleagues said it was more likely that this was done to make it easier to cover up election fraud. Maybe they're more paranoid.

I must admit, that was my first thought. India has a long history of severe corruption, which is still endemic today.

The Election Commission (not Commission Election, by the way) is an autonomous body that is not aligned with, or reports to, any political party (ruling or opposition) in India. They are probably one of the few fair institutions in India and if they decide to go against using Google's services it could be because of many things, but covering up election fraud or being corrupt are probably not amongst them.

EC is autonomous but the 3 EC commissioners are appointed by the ruling party/coalition in Delhi. The EC is one of the few institutions that has continued to stick to its charter despite the corruption prevalent in every inch of the fabric of Indian society. However that does not mean the voting is free from corruption and party politics. Its more prevalent in rural and semi urban India but it exists nonetheless. Have you ever voted in the polls in India? The local party units can heavily influence the voter rolls by virtue of being "poll workers". The dead and disabled vote in every election. Its not a dire situation in a country of 1.2 billion but voter fraud is a reality in India. This decision to avoid Google was taken after some politicians raised the "sellout to foreign corporation" and the 24hr news cycle, hyper-ventilating media picked up on it. The same politicians who probably helped in the successful launch of the latest Mercedes S model..all in stock cars sold within 2 weeks!

A few of my Indian colleagues said it was more likely that this was done to make it easier to cover up election fraud. Maybe they're more paranoid.

I must admit, that was my first thought. India has a long history of severe corruption, which is still endemic today.

The Election Commission (not Commission Election, by the way) is an autonomous body that is not aligned with, or reports to, any political party (ruling or opposition) in India. They are probably one of the few fair institutions in India and if they decide to go against using Google's services it could be because of many things, but covering up election fraud or being corrupt are probably not amongst them.

Election Commission of India is an Autonomous body which does not report to any Government Ministry. It is a respected and independent body who has been highly successful in making election in India very clean. As such, if it has taken some decision, be assured it is not to indulge in any kind of election fraud. Also, Election in India takes place with encrypted Electronic Voting Machines with paper trail, so that voting can't be rigged. As such, only two possibilities for the decision could be, as reported above, No clear benefits of Google 's project or mistrust towards the company /country.

Am I the only one who finds it funny, that two new posters (one with only a single post no less) post messages that sound extremely complimentary *and* completely rehearsed?

I doubt anyone in the US would be too happy if similar things were outsourced to foreign companies either. Would probably play out pretty much identically.

Would have been nice to have India contract work to an American company. Quite frankly, I think being able to better cover up voter fraud makes more sense.

Yeah pot calling kettle black. Remember the US presidential election of 2000? Palm Beach County's butterfly ballots? What about the 2004 United States election voting controversies?

Typical USian behavior: Start blaming/berating/criticizing others but doing the same shit most often even worse. Other examples of this behavior: human/civil rights abuses: the US loves to point the finger to show themselves as paragon of freedom but has Guantanamo, torture, extrajudicial killings, massive surveillance, death penalty, NDAA, police violence, NSLs etc.Corruption: Apart from the election "irregularities"? Citizens United ...

Yeah, I'll notice you cut my post off right where I said: Right now, I figure any online voting project anywhere is going to have at least one significantly involved person trying to figure out how to rig the system.

Because yes, I do remember all those things you mentioned. Also all those other things you mention are completely irrelevant to this discussion. Where did anyone in this thread say America as a country was some paragon of virtue? Where did I 1) claim to be an American or 2) support all the stupid shit America has done? Also, if we're going to play by your rules where citizens of a country are implicitly in support of every action their country has ever been responsible for and no one has the right to cast any criticism or concern over another country unless they are themselves 100% blameless in all regards, your little tirade there makes you an enormous hypocrite. But then, I'm sure you knew that...

Whether India is being truthful or not about it's reasons for not partnering with Google, one hopes all the economic damage the NSA is causing will finally cause the corporate lobbyists to start pressuring the congress people they keep in their pockets.